Stepan Cheltsov

29 June  27 August, 2010RussiaUniversity: Moscow State University

An internship always feels like half work. You’re kind of an employee, but you’re not doing anything important. Or you’re doing something that no one else wants to do. Or you are there because the head of the company felt like it, but there’s no job for you, so all you do is push papers.

There are internships where you start doing something. And there’s so much work and it’s so difficult that you don’t feel like working in that company anymore.

It also happens that you an A student, you know a lot of different things and want to apply your knowledge to practice, but nobody cares because that’s how things are done in that company.

And there can be a lot of departments you didn’t get into because you got into a boring one. Or you are disappointed in your department but can’t transfer to another. Or you can, but only after some time.

And it’s even more disappointing if to apply for an internship you have to take a lot of tests: English, math, market analysis, and you expect a job that will blow your mind, and what you get is boring and not worth 5 years of studying.

At Art. Lebedev Studio things are completely different. The selection process is quick and efficient: find the problem, solve the problem.

This simple principle defines the whole internship. All the tasks that an intern encounters are real world problems that require immediate solution and application. Each meeting with the manager demands attention to your tasks and permanent control and inspires wit and business acumen. No one pushes interns to hurry—you voluntarily strive to do your best to complete tasks quickly.

An intern starts to think not like an employee who is given a task with a straightforward solution, but as a member of the team—a manager looking for ways to improve the work process. Initiative is always welcome and is met with healthy criticism. An interesting idea is put into practice with a speed equal to the intern’s efforts put into it.

Internship at the studio involves working with different departments. The tasks cover all fields of the studio’s activities allowing interns to choose the one they are most interested in and those they definitely don’t want to pursue.

Each problem requires more expertise than an intern possesses. To complete a task, you might need to study books and textbooks, search the web and ask your friends for help. Interns learn to quickly solve problems, find ways to address work and personal issues and think of business as a link of an anchor chain that holds a big ship, not as a balloon floating in the sky.

The studio teaches interns to communicate and find common ground with different people—team members, colleagues, clients, contractors, prominent business people. They are taught to conduct business negotiations and hold their ground when discussing terms, price and quality. An ability to defend your position and insist on the importance of the studio as a client develops by itself.

I’m pleased that I got a chance to experience the studio’s life, learn about its progress and ambitions, find my field of interest and make plans for the future. I hope that all future interns will gain much more experience and skills that those who came first, showcase their talents and contribute to saving the world through design.